Joyce Chandler (Trish Goff), a young divorced woman and recovering alcoholic, moves into a Manhattan apartment that seems a bit too secluded to be true. It is: Upstairs lives Charlotte Bancroft (Ally Sheedy), a woman with a wall of obliviousness who can turn even an 'apology' into a guilt trip, Charlotte persists in making Joyce's nighttime hours a living hell. As the torture continues, Joyce starts to lose her grip on her job, her health and her sanity. It's a heck of a price to pay for having your own place.

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Review :

Slow and wordy.

Very early on the film takes on the feel of a meanderingly paced, talky version of 'Pacific Heights", which it self was a meanderingly paced, talky film. Some good performances come through, but not enough to save the film.

A recently divorced woman moves into a new apartment and tries to move on with her life. She soon discovers that her upstairs neighbor likes to crank up the noise at all hours of the night and keep her awake. When civility fails to resolve the problem and outside issues further complicate matters, the young lady must take more drastic steps.

From the start the film is determined to take it's time. Every scene unrolls at a languid pace, almost like it's challenging the audience to stay awake. Long, often pointlessly so, dialogue exchanges continue for what seems like an eternity only to end just in time for yet another needlessly lengthy dialogue exchange.

It would be fair to say that this over-abundance of exposition serves to build tension, except that there is little of no pay off to all the waiting. One could also say that it expounds on the character personalities were it not for that fact that in the end every one is motivated by either petty or unexplained reasons.

The filming matches the script to a 'T'. Aside for the occasional sporadic (actually kind of jarring) jump cuts, the film follows the events as they are, never appearing to be any more interested in what's happening that it needs to be.

The actors are what they are, an art house crowd for the most part. The lead actress is attractive (if REALLY skinny) and does a decent job with a character we have seen many times before. Ally Sheedy tries for neurotic, but comes off annoying.

Art house crowds might dig it's detached vibe, but most audiences will have a hard time ridding it to conclusion.